The shortage of Covid-19 vaccination cards in clinics and the subsequent delay by the Ministry of Health and Child Care to issue new vaccination cards with security features is creating delays in the national rollout.
Government recently adopted a decentralised approach in the vaccine rollout, but the vaccination cards have been inadequate, prompting some centres to issue makeshift vaccination cards.
Records are being recorded manually, sometimes on plain paper.
Recently, Harare City Council Health Services Director, Dr Prosper Chonzi told state media that the initial cards were being phased out and currently, they were improvising and recording whoever comes for vaccination.
However, due to the debate around vaccines some facilities have been issuing makeshift cards, some which are handwritten.
This has raised credibility issues, as some who are taking the vaccine to safeguard their jobs no longer feel the utility of the process as they are leaving facilities without verifiable means.
As a result of this need, some nurses and health workers have begun selling counterfeit vaccination cards, costing between US$25 and US$50.
The emerging vaccination card black market is concerning authorities.
Recently, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi warned against such practices.
“People should come and report so that the law can take its course. Some people are definitely taking advantage of this Covid-19. Those people should be brought to book,” said Nyathi.
Worryingly, experts warn that the precedence may result in the rapid increase in movement of people who are not vaccinated, who are more vulnerable to contracting the virus disguised as having been vaccinated.
More so, such precedence may lead to the rise in COVID-19 contractions in the wake of a possible third wave already hitting other countries globally due to new strains of the virus.
“We are just waiting for the Ministry to produce the digital cards but the ones that are being issued can be manipulated because they do not have any security features. It’s not something that we can rely on in the long term,” said Dr Norman Matara from Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights.
Electronic cards are expected to plug the gaps being exploited by greedy health workers.
The certificate will come in the form of an electronic card with security features and a quick response (QR) barcode which can be scanned for verification. It will be linked to the person’s passport and national identity document.
“The electronic cards with barcodes will be a welcome permanent solution to solve the current loopholes as this will ensure we can assess how many people have indeed been vaccinated for certain and help in planning going forward,” added Matara.
By adopting digital vaccination cards, Zimbabwe is progressively curving a much efficient tool in the history of the country’s health records keeping system which have remained predominantly paper –based.
In other countries, digital vaccination cards are now a requirement to attend live events and for international travel at airports.
However, government’s failure to give up-to-date information on progress in the manufacturing and distribution of the proposed electronic cards remains its biggest undoing.
In March, the Director of health informatics and data analytics in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Simukai Zizhou was quoted by South African news site, TimesLIVE saying the new electronic cards were due to be released beginning of April.
“We have finalized the electronic cards. We previously issued them to a small group of people and are now certain the electronic cards work. The cards have security features which can be scanned and verified.
“The electronic cards are locally developed, and we will start issuing them this week,” he said.
Yet, a follow up on progress on the electronic cards proved futile, as authorities in the Health Ministry were still not yet sure when they will be ready for issuance.
However, even the digital cards are not immune to counterfeiting; a huge reality Zimbabwe’s health authority must be prepared to tackle.
At a time when there is growing interest in the development and use of Covid-19 vaccine passports and certificates with security features designed to help countries reopen to foreigners, the threat of cybercriminals has emerged larger than before, a US cyber intelligence watchdog, Check Point Research recently warned. This is further worrying for less developed countries such as Zimbabwe whose digital security robustness is very much in question.
